New Jersey’s middle-income communities are caught in a bind, according to research presented to a legislative panel Oct. 24.

Overtaxed, yet too wealthy for larger shares of state aid, middle-income school districts fall $500 million short of what they need to provide their students with an adequate education, according to the research.

Commissioner of Education Lucille Davy and Denver-based school finance consultant John Augenblick presented the data to the Joint Legislative Committee on Public School Funding Reform. The panel is one of four charged with recommending legislation to help New Jersey cut property taxes.

“Even after numerous court decisions and school funding statutes, our state has yet to adequately address school funding concerns and overburdening property taxes in these communities,” said Kevin E. Ciak, NJSBA president.

Cost of Adequate Education  Conducted by the state Department of Education in consultation with Augenblick, the research places the dollar amount of an adequate education at more than $8,000 per student for regular programming, based on 2004-2005 data.  The total amount that would have been needed to provide an adequate education statewide that year was $15.3 billion. New Jersey spent approximately $14.9 billion on education in 2004-2005.

The figures, however, do not include cost drivers, such as special education, transportation and pensions.

Using the research, The Star-Ledger calculated that spending in both the 31 Abbott school districts and the state’s 128 wealthiest communities exceeded the amounts deemed adequate by the study.  Middle-income districts, meanwhile, fell half a billion dollars short of the adequate levels.

If the state could produce a financial definition of thorough and efficient, or adequate, education – and if the courts would accept the number as constitutionally valid – it could open the door to significant changes in how New Jersey allocates state aid for education.

NJSBA has requested additional information about the methodology and the data that the state used to arrive at the figures.

Joint Committees Schedule By Nov. 15, the four joint legislative committees on property tax reform will release recommendations in their respective areas: consolidation/shared services, school funding reform, public employee benefits reform, and state constitutional reform/citizens convention.

The panel on government consolidation and shared services was slated to conduct a public hearing on several legislative proposals Wednesday night in Paramus. As of press time, no meetings were scheduled for the other panels.